I'm older than dirt and got my first PC in 1989.

I'm 49 and I would have thought there were much younger people here.

I have made a new banner that I'm putting up for consideration



Alan

I'm 56 and have been working with computers since the late 70s. I find it funny that younger people are mystified when they find that we're old. I wonder who do they think invented the net? Microsoft? Macs? Photoshop? It was us. I, and I'd venture to say that a lot of here have been into everything, graphics, audio, video, programming, everything at one point. It used to crack me up when I'd be in chat and some kids would tell us old people to get off 'their' internet.
Yes, I'm retired, not by choice but by medical necessity. I like doing graphics, audio, video, etc. because the possibilities are endless. We have more creative means and methods than we've ever had in the history of the planet.

Maybe we could change it to Grampchat?

Pegleg - Nice Banner.

When I go to my sons school and see all the computer sweets They have now, ours was a bbc in a broom cupboard!!!.

Not that I could now because the program langauges have changed so much and I never kept up, but did write a couple of games on the old atari, It was a satisyfying experience because used the paint program for the graphics and a 4 track bit of music software for the sound.

GRAMPCHAT - WHERE IMAGINATION MEETS ERR I FORGET.

I thought you were a teenager.

I don't know. It seems like there's always a goodly number of ladies in attendance.

FoggyChat then. We could see how many ways there are to gmic a bottle of prune juice.

I've not found computers to be a problem with old folks, it's middle aged people who seem to have the most trouble because they're afraid they'll break something. Little kids don't know they ca break something and I guess old folks either don't know and don't care, or know but have broken so much in our lifetimes that we're used to broken things because we're falling apart too.

I'm 52 but I don't really feel like a codger.

I'm an old school computer guy. I've used punch cards to write programs and paper tape for storage. Aside from Tandy's TRS-80 and the early Apples, there were no "PCs" when I began my career. We called them "microcomputers" back then and CP/M was the OS of choice. My first paid programming jobs were done with Northstar and Kaypro computers, while I was in college working toward by computer science degree.

I've pretty much been a freelancer my entire life and became interested in GIMP when I abandoned Microsoft and became a full time Linux guy.

I really like the fact that this site attracts a more mature crowd.

Yes,I like it too. I used to go to a site that was all kids and all they did was make game avatars. Having a variety here makes a nice variety plus we have a lot of collected experience. Plus I can mention Rowan and Martin's laugh in or Adam West and most of the people will know what I mean. This is where the whippersnappers commence to googling.

oh i know that! my grandfather was the computer pioneer in our little town and back in the eighties he taught my brother and me some gw-basic (i got as far as writing a very short and simple quiz game, then my billions of other interests took over), and one of my uncles was the computer guru for ASEA here in sweden. it's just that the web forums i've been in before have all been a bit on the young side .

oh no! that was a looong time ago now. i obviously need to work on my mature image a bit .
PegLeg44: nice banner .

I thought you posted some pics when you first joined. I guess I was thinking of someone else. I always wonder what people look like. I always form mental images that are always wrong.

53 here. I retired at 50... then got another job.

Under 30 here.

You'd be surprised at the age of a lot of photo editors. I have a specific email subscriber who is 85, and servral more over 60

We have one guy here, or used to be here in his 80s but I can't remember his name.

+1 for grampchat. (but the focus of the board will have to change, and somewhat radically, towards "ailments.")

Late to the thread, as per usual m.o., but happy to participate in full-disclosure.

Actually, I'm only just turning 62, although I play a much more aged codger on gimpchat. I picked gramp for being a variant of GIMP, which helped me remember my user name.

Back in 2012, when this was originally posted, I was, 66. No, wrong direction. 57. No, that can't be right. 50-ish. No that doesn't mean what I thought. 60-ish would be closer, but I must have been in my late 50s.

I bought one of the first Zenith Z-100 computers, and unknowingly sealed my fate. I later bought another one because
I could not believe how utterly "cheap" it was! ...and many long years before it dawned on me that computers should be set
out on the curb when they become obsolescent, even if that's before they stop working. (In fact, that's one of those things,
like fishing, that is very hard to pick up on your own and someone has to tell you.)

Picked up a lot of languages along the way, but with no formal training, never felt comfortable presenting myself for employment as a programmer. However, I have done some impressive projects.

Now I run a networked stable of mixed-race computers, all running versions of Linux, but from a RaspberryPi up to what used to be a "powerhouse" (8GB ram). The family are mostly technology dont-cares, but they took to Linux like kittens to cream when I eliminated Windows.

I must say that I love computers because they let me imagine, and explore my imaginations, but I think I just said that I like them because they enable my escapist tendencies.

Thanks for the topic. Sorry for my tardy reply. 57! Got it. I was 57 in 2012! Or possibly 56, depending on the month of the OP, but let's just use 57.

Cant believe I missed this one. I'm sure I joined April that year - I would have been 53 then.
First computer I encountered (late eighties - early 90's) was a Commodore for games. I didn't start using a PC though until 2000. Started with Gimp 2003 until present.

I have to laugh at all you youngsters!
On page one of this thread 2-ton mentioned Eniac and Univac - they were very late in the game - I remember Atlas Mark 1 at Manchester University in the UK.
I will be three score years and ten in a few months, but am still about 25 at heart.
And yes, I am touch typing this.

david.

David - ah yes those very early days ... I was working on Burroughs/NCR/Remington processing machines in the mid sixties and even brought home the very first Burroughs Personal Computer to play with but I cannot remember when!! I just managed to fit it into the boot of my car.

I was also programming General Electric/Honeywell/Perkin Elmer mainframes in the 70s using 'assembler' code.

And I am now, yes today, '3 score years + 10 -1' and I have also just seen that you have vandalised my photo in Issabella's thread lol